Silkroad

We would book cruise rate if it made sense financially. Our earliest cruises hadn’t any packages, so we’ve had experience paying for Wi-Fi and drinks. We live in the US, so we could get by without Wi-Fi for New England/Canada or Pacific Coastal cruises by using our Elite CC minutes while aboard and our mobiles in ports. This would not be the case for the repositioning and European cruises we’ve preferred thus far. On those, we’ve always purchased one Wi-Fi package. We always pay the posted gratuities (at a minimum) so it makes no difference how we pay them. We like the Premium beverage package because most of the spirits, wines and beers we prefer are on that package (or have a surcharge above the package). We often use our discount to purchase a bottle of wine for special occasions. We do make good use of the Premium drink package but we don’t drink enough to save money having it. I would say we have broken even, on average. For us, it’s really the convenience of not constantly having to sign for beverages. We have carried our allowed two bottles of wine aboard once. We ended up giving one bottle to friends who were remaining in France for a land trip. We found that we really preferred enjoying our beverages while dining, listening to live music or having interesting conversations with fellow passengers.

Wish I could say the same. We have done only two cruises since restart. On Edge (October) we did generally receive equivalent or better wines or spirits. On Equinox (April) we were offered equivalent or better spirits, but this was most emphatically not the case with wines. Premium beers and still waters were also difficult to obtain. Hopefully, we’ll have a better experience on Apex in December.

Uh oh! Guess I’m a Neanderthal😂

Like many other people, I have both seasonal and year round allergies. Anyone who is wearing scented products shouldn’t be surprised if some - including me - begin sneezing. Also, those who have COPD may need to cough frequently. Please don’t make assumptions about everyone who coughs or sneezes (into their arms or tissues, I hope).

I suggested using a proctored test to fly home. I do use “free” (aka funded by taxpayers) OTC kits all the time, but not when preparing to fly home. Try reading one of the many threads written by people who have recently tested positive on a Celebrity ship. Once you’ve done that, you may decide you don’t want to be “their problem”. And don’t make the mistake of thinking Celebrity’s current policies are the same for every port, or that they will continue to foot the bill forever.

Yep. Just like we need to work around everyone walking around the ship streaming their every thought and action to folks back home. Some people have land trips pre and post cruise. Some people are on b2bs. And gee, believe it or not, we Americans aren’t the only people traveling on cruise ships in Europe. All those others needn’t test before flying home. We can rage against the government regulations all we want, but in the end we must take responsibility for ourselves. We can deal with it or stay home.

I agree with some of the reasoning in previous posts, but I have an additional point. Medical is already stretched thin managing Covid cases on some cruises. They haven’t time to administer tests for disembarking pax. I suggest you purchase your own eMed tests and use them in your cabin the day before disembarkation. Carry an extra one for each of you in case of problems. On occasion, you may find something missing or unusable in your test kit. Or, you may fumble the swab like one YouTube poster did. Good thing he had a spare test kit!

I’m getting my t-shirt printed now. It says, “Can’t stand the thought of leaving OBC on the table? Feel free to transfer your unused OBC to me!” 😜

Here are a couple photos of the veranda of a Sunset Veranda cabin.

Very unlikely that he’d be able to change to an SV as he’s past final payment and Aqua class prices are higher. Sky Suite prices after final payment will be pretty high. Maybe a MoveUp bid? Anyway, there are benefits to an IV, though admittedly sunning on one’s own veranda isn’t one of them.

Here’s a photo taken from within on the the “ hull” verandas (post #6). The area above the horizontal bar is open.

Most Verandas on Edge class are Infinite Verandas. All Aqua (and Concierge) verandas are indeed IVs. As for the others, the Sunset Verandas are very popular, and there are a few regular veranda cabins (near the bow or the stern) having small verandas within the hull. I sailed in an IV on the first Edge transatlantic, so I had 15 nights to assess. There are pros and cons. My DH liked it a little better than I did, but I would certainly book one again. That said, my next cruises (Apex b2b) will be in a Sunset Veranda. Congratulations on your return to cruising. We’ve had two in the past 7 months, one of them on Edge. She’s a beautiful ship. I hope you have a wonderful cruise.

Thanks for the measurements Jim. I’ve wondered if Celebrity had upgraded the US Queen beds to King size in the suites on S class. There’s certainly room. Almost all beds on Edge class are US King size. I can personally confirm that is true in the Infinite Verandas, Sunset Verandas and Sky Suites. Regarding the OP’s question, unless your husband sleeps at the edge of the bed, I wouldn’t think the corners would affect him any more than a square US Queen/UK King bed.

I always choose Select dining, and on my S class cruises I’ve dined on the upper deck of the MDR. Traditional dining was on the lower deck. BTW you may be able to be waitlisted for Select dining or ask the Maître d’ after boarding. In April, they were still enforcing boarding times at the Port Everglades terminal (as others have said, suite & Zenith pax can board anytime). I have heard there may be some leeway in the afternoon, perhaps because there may be fewer people boarding.

I agree that it’s a very sad case. Regardless of whether the case is settled or continues to judgment, I hope the donors have been notified and tested.

Indeed. She couldn’t have known her HIV status unless she’d tested negative for HIV, or donated blood, shortly before boarding. I’ve never been tested for HIV, but my blood donations have been screened for HIV. The Red Cross notifies donors whose blood is positive for HIV, hepatitis etc. If her donors are frequent Red Cross donors, their blood may have been screened recently. I can’t believe anyone would donate blood if they thought there was any risk of infecting another person with an incurable disease.

It’s not easy to do a helicopter evacuation from a ship. We don’t know if weather conditions were stormy or how close to land the ship was. Plus, if someone is hemorrhaging badly there isn’t time.

Hmmm. Less than 10% of the population has A negative blood (same for “universal donor” O negative) so I think she’s darn lucky four passengers were willing and able to donate blood to her. It sounds like she was told she wouldn’t have made it without the transfusion, and she seems to believe that. I doubt that Celebrity (or any cruise line) has the same ability to run screening tests on donated blood that a blood bank does, and they didn’t have much time if she was losing copious amounts of blood. Based on the TMZ story, there’s absolutely no proof that one of her donors was HIV positive. She could have been infected prior to the cruise. Anyway, it should be easy to ask the donors to get tested. Regardless, I’d imagine she signed forms acknowledging that she was receiving said emergency treatment because she’d otherwise die before reaching port.

Ohhh nooo not a rock🥺 You deserve more, three pups more! You may want to email Captain’s Club if you don’t receive your points today. I watched the follow up video also, and I received my three points this afternoon. Good luck!

Humor aside (see my previous post) I always carry any OTC meds, first aid supplies and toiletries I think my DH and I will need. I have never relied on the cruise line, even for meclizine. On my cruises since the shutdown, I’ve packed extra supplies. I have never visited Medical aboard a ship, and I’d like to keep it that way. It’s ridiculous for Celebrity to force well people to risk contagion for minor issues. Sometimes a headache is just a headache.

Great idea! I always travel with OTC meds and first aid supplies. I’ll fund my cocktails with the money I make from my “mobile shop”. Look for the woman wearing a photographer’s vest - wink wink - seated at one of the bars😂

You should receive a discount of $100 for longer cruises (12 nights and over, I think) and a $50 discount for shorter cruises. The discount is per cabin, not per person.

Each of you must have your own eMed account. My DH and I have our own eMed accounts and our own NAVICA apps. We log into our eMed accounts to take our proctored tests. We’ve used both laptops and iPads. We find the laptop easier, but the iPad works fine if you’re traveling without your laptop. We only use our NAVICA apps to display our test results if we’ve not had time to print them.

I have had a cruise sneak up on me, but at least I didn’t need to worry about Covid testing back in the halcyon days of 2019. I realize this comes too late for this trip, but I purchase packs of six proctored Covid test kits from eMed periodically. We’ve successfully used them the morning before driving to the airport (an added advantage being that we can print the reports at home to speed boarding). I hope you’re able to secure an appointment and test negative before leaving for your cruise. Have a great trip! I’ll live vicariously through you until my next cruise😊